Molloy is Trojan Woman

Acclaimed Irish actress Dearbhla Molloy is to play Hecuba in award-winning poet Caroline Bird’s adaptation of The Trojan Women, which opens at the Gate theatre next month.

The production, which runs from 8 November to 15 December, also stars Louise Brealey, Sam Cox, Lucy Ellinson and Jon Foster.

The Trojan Women is set in the aftermath of the Trojan war. Beyond the prison walls, Troy is burning, while inside the prison the city’s captive women await their fate. Hecuba, the fallen Trojan queen, waits in grieving in the mother and baby unit, unaware that her current torment will only get worse as the Greek lust for vengeance consumes everything in its path.

Molloy’s stage career has included the Lindsay Posner-directed Death And The Maiden, the Sam Mendes-directed The Plough And The Stars and the Trevor Nunn-directed Juno And The Paycock. In the US she has won Drama Desk Awards for performances in Dancing At Lughnasa and The Cripple Of Inishmaan.

The production, directed by the venue’s Artistic Director Christopher Haydon, reunites Ellinson and Foster, who both appeared in the Gate’s production of Tenet, while for Cox (Shakespeare’s Globe’s Henry V, Old Vic’s Inherit The Wind) and Brealey (Young Vic’s The Government Inspector, Bush theatre’s Sixty-Six Books) Euripides’ tragedy marks their Gate debuts.